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Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Honeybee Gardens Vintage Merlot: Swatch and Review!

Hey guys!*Polish was provided for free in exchange for my honest opinion*

Today's post is all about a nail polish from Honeybee Gardens! If you are not familiar with this company, let me fill you in! They are cruelty free, vegan, and gluten-free! They offer a wide range of cosmetics, brushes, bath and body and hair products, and more! The makeup is also paraben free, FD & C colors, and petrochemicals (a chemical obtained from refining petroleum or natural gas).

I'm going to copy the polish info directly from the page, so you have the most information possible :-)

"For those who want an alternative to solvent-based nail enamel, we've got the solution for you! Our unique water-based polish is free from harsh chemical odors; no more nasty fumes! But perhaps best of all, there's also no need for toxic smelly nail polish remover - this product removes with rubbing alcohol, vodka/grain alcohol or our Nail Polish Remover! Thanks to our new patented technology, there's nothing else like it on the market!

There is actually a LOT more information on the site but I didn't want this to turn into a novel, lol. But if you would like all the info, please click here.

The color I have for you is called Vintage Merlot and it's gorgeous. It could not be more perfectly named, either! I showed my mom my nails and she said "oh pretty, it looks like wine!" Perfect!

Now, I always use a base coat when wearing nail polish and I used my regular Revlon Gel-Stay base coat for this polish, as well.

I applied one coat to my nails and let it dry for a minute. It was quite thin, but I was expecting that, as a water based product. I ended up using 3 coats to get the opacity I wanted. The polished dried a little uneven; I'm not sure if this is due to ridges in my nails or the thin consistency of the product. I decided to test two nails with top coat and two without and the topcoat did smooth any ridges or unevenness.

One coat:

Two Coats:

Three Coats:

Three coats with top coat:

I wore the polish for 2.5 days before removing. By the end of the first day, there was a small chip on the index finger of my left hand (where the first chip always starts, which is ironic because I'm right handed) and by the middle of the third day, the entire nail of polish peeled off in one sheet. I never mind this because I hate removing nail polish so if it comes off in one sheet, that's okay with me! LOL Also, this happens on my index finger with just about every single polish I wear. It's the strangest thing. That's one reason that I don't usually mention wear time because it is different for everyone.

The brochure that came with the polish suggested using rubbing alcohol to remove the polish, but I didn't have any of that so I used regular acetone and it worked just fine.

The price of this polish is $12.99, which is maybe a little more than I would expect to pay for a polish, except that natural products do tend to cost a bit more than the chemically laden products we buy.

I would definitely try some other colors. The polish has almost zero odor; I would equate it to a very very faint wall paint smell. The color was beautiful and built up to a nice opacity, and I do love a natural makeup product!

You can purchase Honeybee Gardens directly from their website, but I just discovered that you can also purchase this brand on Drugstore.com, Walgreens.com and starting next week at Target.com. What's great about purchasing from those sites is that you can use Ebates to earn cash back! Whoo!